“All students enrolled in Shoreline’s public secondary schools now can have a Macintosh laptop for use at school and at home during the school year,” Linda Knapp reports for The Seattle Times.

“This program is possible because Shoreline residents passed a bond measure enabling the school district to purchase and support the laptops. Parents can opt out of the program, but very few have,” Knapp reports. “For this family’s eighth-grader, the excitement of receiving a laptop makes returning to school not so bad.”

“They’ll be using these computers to do research, write papers, develop presentations, submit homework and communicate with teachers, among other things,” Knapp reports.

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Note: All of Shoreline’s 7th-12th graders – more than 4,800 students – are eligible for take-home Apple iBook and MacBook computers this school year. Shoreline, WA is located a scant 21 miles (about a 30 min. commute) from Microsoft’s Redmond, WA headquarters. We can only imagine the reactions of those Microsoft employees living in the Shoreline school district as their children bring home their new Apple notebooks running Mac OS X.

Related articles:
CNNMoney’s back-to-school guide: Get a Mac – September 02, 2006
The Seattle Times: Apple Macbook is best computer for school – August 26, 2006
Enderle: Microsoft employees voice concerns about working for dysfunctional company – March 29, 2006
What’s the difference between Mac OS X and Vista? Microsoft employees are excited about Mac OS X – March 22, 2006
Apple Mac is #1 in European education market, pushes Dell down into second place – February 03, 2006